Journal of a Novel, John Steinbeck
Journal of a Novel, John Steinbeck
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Journal of a Novel
The East of Eden Letters

Author: John Steinbeck

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Unabridged: 8 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 11/16/2021


Synopsis

Each working day from January 29 to November 1, 1951, John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of "getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game." Steinbeck's letters were written on the left-hand pages of a notebook in which the facing pages would be filled with the test of East of Eden. They touched on many subjects—story arguments, trial flights of workmanship, concern for his sons.Part autobiography, part writer's workshop, these letters offer an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck's creative process, and a fascinating glimpse of Steinbeck, the private man.

About The Author

John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than 30 years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Janet on January 21, 2023

I got halfway through this book--and then decided I would read it in concert with East of Eden. A fantastic five star experience. Steinbeck's editor sent him an oversized bound journal in which to write his next book, and what Steinbeck did was, each morning, write a 'letter' to his editor about the......more

Goodreads review by Pierre on December 05, 2011

Well, Mr Steinbeck. I go down on my knees before you, Sir. It was you who taught me how to tell a story. You, who are so darn good, yet so vulnerable and humble. What writer would have the guts to admit, 'Although sometimes I have felt I held fire in my hands and spread a page with shining, I have ne......more

Goodreads review by M. on December 04, 2018

Such a great journal. I enjoyed every word. Steinbeck was certainly an interesting man. This book gives us an inside look at how he worked. Myself, not so much a plot-driven devotee, but Steinbeck clearly had a plan and he carried it out to perfection. I admire him for that and respect his process.......more

Goodreads review by Derek on March 30, 2024

I’m not sure I’d call myself a Steinbeck fan but I loved East of Eden and decided to read this book after visiting Steinbeck’s hometown, Salinas. The book of letters sheds a great deal of light on Steinbeck’s writing process and perhaps on literary work in general. The book also made me deeply nosta......more

Goodreads review by Shane on October 09, 2017

Only someone of the stature of John Steinbeck, flying in the fame of his seminal, Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Grapes of Wrath, could have pulled off publishing a diary maintained through the months he wrote his longest and (in his eyes) best book, East of Eden. The diary was written to his editor P......more


Quotes

"Full of insights and revelations involving the gladness and terror of writing." —Chicago Sun-Times"A sort of Travels with Charley across a more personal country." —The Boston Globe